The burgeoning market for explosives screening equipment and an increase in research on chemical and explosive detection technologies are in response to the greater need to perform real-time detection of undesirable chemicals and hidden explosives, such as those concealed in luggage, shipping containers, land mines, and unexploded ordinances. The market for devices that screen people for explosives and various types of biological, chemical or nuclear/radiological weapons is estimated by Homeland Security Research Corp. to reach $3.5 billion by 2006 and $9.9 billion by 2010.
Among the wide range of materials from which explosives can be made are organic nitrates, organonitro compounds, ketone and acyl peroxides, inorganic chlorates, perchlorates, nitrates, fulminates, and acetylides. Some of the explosive residue chemical compounds for detection and identification include 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2,4,6,n-tetranitro-n-methylaniline (Tetryl), 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (RDX), 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazacyclooctane (HMX), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), glycerol trinitrate (nitroglycerin), and ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN).
Many obstacles remain for scientists and engineers working to develop equipment and processes for detecting explosives. Dogs continue to be the preferred explosive detectors, yet widespread deployment of canine teams is neither practical nor cost effective. Moreover, currently available non-canine explosive sensor equipment tends to be complex, bulky, and expensive, and cannot be miniaturized easily.
Currently available explosive and bomb detection systems typically absorb particulate or vapor matter onto a surface, and analyze the matter using techniques such as ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, and gas chromatography. Successful explosive and chemical detection techniques can require sensitivity as low as parts per trillion to parts per quadrillion, in that small explosive devices such as anti-personnel land mines may be constructed from plastic and other non-metallic substances having low vapor pressures. One exemplary explosive and chemical detection system used in airports exposes luggage to a stream of air that dislodges chemicals into the air as vapors, which are subsequently concentrated to create detectable levels of the chemicals. Unfortunately, many conventional explosive and chemical detection systems still have high false alarm rates, slow throughput, operator dependences, and high transaction costs.
Some conventional explosive detection systems include cantilevered elements. One example of this type of system is described by Thundat in “Microcantilever Detector for Explosives,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,263, issued Jun. 29, 1999 (Thundat). As disclosed in Thundat, explosive gas molecules that have been adsorbed onto a microcantilever are subsequently heated to cause combustion, which in turn causes bending and a transient resonance response of the microcantilever. Movement of the microcantilever is detected by a laser diode, which is focused on the microcantilever, and a photodetector, which detects deflection of the reflected laser beam caused by a heat-induced deflection and resonance response of the microcantilever. Conventional explosive detectors that include cantilevered elements, such as the detector disclosed in Thundat, have a variety of limitations. For example, many such detectors cannot be miniaturized because they require external cantilever actuation and external sensing.